Quintiles founder wins lifetime achievement award

Singapore: Quintiles founder Dr Dennis Gillings has received the SCRIP 'Lifetime Achievement Award' and the company has been named 'CRO of the Year' at the 2012 SCRIP Awards in London.

The SCRIP Awards acknowledge excellence in the biopharmaceutical industry, judged by an independent panel of 16 life sciences experts. The 8th annual awards ceremony, held on November 28th at The Lancaster hotel in London, was attended by more than 500 industry leaders from around the world.

Mr Mike Ward, chief content officer, Datamonitor Healthcare and Scrip Intelligence, said that, "Scrip's Lifetime Achievement Award is reserved for an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the pharma and the biotech industry. In founding Quintiles, Mr Dennis Gillings made an indelible impact on drug development by pioneering the clinical research organization (CRO) industry, revolutionizing the field to the extent that clinical trials expertise now rests with these companies. The CRO sector is still fast growing and plays a crucial role in drug development."

"I am honored to receive this award," said Dr Gillings. "It is humbling to be recognized by this prestigious panel, and I share this with Quintiles' employees, past and present, around the world who make our company what it is today. During these past three decades, many diseases have gone from being life threatening to manageable thanks to the work we have done with our biopharmaceutical customers."

"As we look ahead, I believe we on are on the cusp of many new discoveries that will further transform healthcare. It is my goal to ensure that Quintiles can help enable innovation to make a difference to patients around the world."